Anindya Chatterjee
Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kanpur
For potential PhD students
The PhD is a long journey. The post-PhD job search is different from job searches after a bachelors or masters degree, because it is completely individual. Since each professor guides many PhD students over their career, it follows that many PhD students will not find jobs in institutes as good as the one where they got their PhD. This is not a reflection on the PhD student. Statistically speaking, post-PhD academic careers flow downward. A few will do very well, and this section is not for them.
Many PhD students go abroad as postdocs, which is fine. But some of them remain postdocs (maybe called something else, like research scientist) and their funding is renewed from time to time from external sources without any long term commitment from the university they serve (this kind of funding is called soft money). Crossing age 50 after many years of living on such soft money is not pleasant. Going abroad as a postdoc and then moving to an industrial position after some time is, in my opinion, a better option.
Other PhD students join smaller colleges within India, which has human value but may offer less prestige.
Some start technical businesses of their own, which requires a practical mindset and development of transferable skills during the PhD or soon thereafter. Such stories please and impress me, but this path is not easy for all.
Some move to industry. Industrial positions for PhDs are somewhat limited in India. Industrial work tends to be focused on practical things with economic goals. I encourage this kind of career move. The PhD is a training exercise where we use academic research to develop your skills. If you cannot transfer those skills to some external large scale profitable economic activity, then industrial people will not pay you a salary. Why should they?
I have discussed these things at somewhat greater length in my book, if you want to take a look.
And if you still want to work with me for your PhD, then you may like to look first at the list of my former PhD students, given below. Then see what I want from a potential PhD student.
My former PhD students
Nos.
1-7 from IISc Bangalore, No. 8 from IIT Kharagpur, and the rest from IIT
Kanpur.
If you
look at the thesis topics you will see an emphasis on basics, a broad range of
topics, and no industrial compulsions. Yet, several of my students have
subsequently gone on to do useful industrial work.
Theoretical is not the opposite of practical.
Impractical is. (Quoting a friend here.)
Industrial
funding, of course, is a lovely thing for those who know how to get it on terms
they enjoy. It is just that by the time I identify a problem that I want to
work on, it seems easiest to start work on it rather than go looking for money.
1. Pankaj Wahi went for a short
postdoc to Texas A&M in the US, and now teaches at IIT Kanpur. His thesis
is here.
2. Satwinder Jit Singh spent a
little time as a postdoc at IIT Kanpur (before I came here), and now teaches at
IIT Ropar. His thesis is here.
3. N. Rajanbabu went back to
teach in NSS College of Engineering, Palakkad, Kerala (that is where he
came from). He has now retired. His thesis is here.
4. Amol Marathe joined CRL
(Pune), went to Honeywell (Bangalore), and then went to teach at BITS Pilani.
His thesis is here.
5. Pradipta Basu Mandal worked
in Bangalore for a while (with Altair, I think), then moved to CMERI (CSIR),
Durgapur, and has moved again to a college in Kolkata. His thesis is here.
6. Pradeep Mahadevan went to
work for Honeywell in Bangalore on turbochargers, and has since moved to
Singapore. His thesis is here.
7. K. Nandakumar went for a
postdoc with at the University of Aberdeen, worked for a company in Aberdeen
for several years, and has relocated to India. His thesis is here.
8. Prasun Jana went to IIT
Mandi, then IIT-ISM Dhanbad, and now teaches at IIT Kharagpur. His thesis is here.
9. Husain Kanchwala went for a postdoc
at Cranfield (UK), lectured there and at Warwick, and now teaches at IIT Delhi.
His thesis is here.
10. Saurabh Biswas went for a
postdoc at IIT Bombay, and now teaches at IIT Jammu. His thesis is here.
11. Arindam Bhattacharjee taught
briefly at IIEST (Shibpur) and then at TIET (Patiala). He now teaches at NIT
Calicut. His thesis is here.
12. Sankalp Tiwari went to an NGO
called NARI, and then went as a postdoc to Okinawa. His thesis is here.
13. Ashok Kumar came from IGCAR
(external registration) and is continuing there. His thesis is here.
14. Bidhayak Goswami went to
University College Dublin as a postdoc. His thesis is here.
What I want from a PhD student
If wanting was the same as getting, then the world would be
different. But here is my wish list anyway.
1. A good prior academic record.
This can mean good grades from a good college, or just excellent understanding
of basics and clear communication thereof.
2. No confusion about where the primary
responsibility rests: of learning, working, reporting, and writing. In
particular, writing is long and hard work.
3. Good math skills, or the
willingness to acquire them. For example, having solved my posted math problems
will count favorably with me.
4. Willingness to take a
suggestion and think carefully about it over the time it takes.